Murphy was inclined to be triumphalist about the church’s demise, but Robin found it hard to celebrate. Murphy and Strike kept telling her that the child abuse accusations against her would be dropped any day now, but she’d had no word to that effect. Even worse than her personal fear of prosecution was her dread of the church reforming and rebuilding. When she said as much to Murphy, he’d told her she was too pessimistic, but watching Becca smiling on television, clearly unshaken in her belief in the Lotus Way, Robin could only hope that the world would watch more closely and ask more questions, when the next five-sided temple appeared on a piece of vacant land.
‘And what about the Waces?’ Sir Colin asked Strike, while the children on the lawn continued to chase bubbles.
‘Confidentially,’ said Strike, ‘Mazu hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest. Literally not a word. One of our police contacts told us she won’t even talk to her own lawyer.’
‘Shock, do you think?’ said Sir Colin.
‘Power play,’ said Robin. ‘She’ll continue to act as though she’s the divine mother of the Drowned Prophet until her dying breath.’
‘But surely she knows, now…?’
‘I think,’ said Robin, ‘if she ever allowed herself to accept that Daiyu was murdered, and her husband knew all along, and made sure to get her killer out of the way to safety, it would drive her out of her mind.’
‘And has Abigail confessed?’ Sir Colin asked Strike.
‘No,’ said Strike. ‘She’s like her father: brazen it out as long as you can, but her boyfriends are turning on her. Now they’ve realised they might be accused of being accessories to attempted murder, they can’t wait to get off the sinking ship. Confidentially, one of her fireman colleagues saw her pocketing the gun and ammo when she found it in a burned-out drug den. He says he assumed she was going to hand them over to the police. ’Course, he’d have to say that – he’s married, and he doesn’t want it to come out that she was sleeping with him, as well.
‘Reaney’s currently denying he knows anything about axes and pigs, but a guy who was in the men’s dormitory that night remembers Reaney sneaking back inside, in the early hours. Reaney was in his underwear: he’d obviously had to get rid of his bloody tracksuit somewhere. Then he accused everyone of nicking it, when he woke up.
‘I think Abigail will be found guilty of Kevin’s murder, and for trying to kill Robin and me, and I think she and Reaney are both going to be done for Daiyu’s murder.’
‘Abigail must be seriously disturbed,’ said the compassionate Sir Colin. ‘She must have had a dreadful childhood.’
‘A lot of people have dreadful childhoods and don’t take to strangling small children,’ said the implacable Strike, to nods of agreement from Dennis and Pat.
Strike was thinking of Lucy as he spoke. He’d spent the previous day with his sister, accompanying her to view two prospective nursing homes for their uncle. Afterwards they’d had a coffee together in a café, and Strike had told his sister about Mazu attempting to kill Robin in the Rupert Court Temple.
‘That evil bitch,’ said the horrified Lucy.
‘Yeah, but we got her, Luce,’ said Strike, ‘and the baby’s back with her mother.’
Strike had half-expected more tears, but to his surprise, Lucy beamed at him.
‘I know I nag you, Stick,’ she said. ‘I know I do, but as long as you’re happy, I don’t care if you’re not – you know. Married with kids, and all that. You do wonderful things. You help people. You’ve helped
Touched, Strike reached out to squeeze her hand.
‘I s’pose you’re just not cut out for the whole settling down with one woman thing, and that’s OK,’ said Lucy, now smiling a little tearfully. ‘I promise I’ll never go on about it again.’
A week after they’d visited the Edensors, Strike, with a heavy heart but a sense of obligation, agreed to meet Amelia Crichton, Charlotte’s sister, at her place of work.
